Blood Lines

memories.
    'The sons of the Pharaoh were the sons of Osiris reborn and Osiris would not have them corrupted by what he termed an abomination. So Thoth, god of wisdom, came to one of his priests in a dream and told them how I might be overcome. My protections were shattered and once again I was dragged from my temple. The first time, I was left alive because my life had no meaning. This time, they were afraid to kill me because my life had gone on for so long.
    Even the gods were wary of what might happen should my ka be released into Akhekh's keeping with so many acolytes still performing the rituals. I was not to be slain, I was to be entombed alive. All this I was told as the priests of Thoth prepared me for burial.
    'Three thousand years later, my prison was brought here to this city and I was freed."
    'And you destroyed the man who gave you your freedom."
    'Destroying him gave me my freedom. I needed his knowledge."
    'And the other. The custodian."
    'I needed his life. I had been entombed for three thousand years, Nightwalker. I had to feed. Would you have done any differently?"
    Henry remembered the three days he had spent beneath the earth, hunger clawing at him until hunger became all he was. "No," he admitted, as much to himself as to Tawfik, "I would have fed. But," he shook free of the memory, "I would not have killed those others, not the children."
    Tawfik shrugged. "I needed their power."
    'So you took their lives."
    'Yes." He shifted on the bench, linking his fingers together and leaning his forearms across his thighs. "I told you all this, Nightwalker, so you would learn you cannot stop me. You are no wizard. Thoth and Osiris are long dead and cannot help you. Your god does not interfere."
    First the stick. "If you oppose me, I will be forced to destroy you."
    And then the carrot. "As I see it, you have two choices; live and let live, as I am willing to do with you, or join me."
    'Join you." Henry was not quite in control of the repetition.
    'Yes. We have much in common, you and I."
    'We have nothing in common."
    Tawfik lifted his brows. "Of course we don't." The sarcasm had a razor edge. "This city has many more immortal beings."
    'You murder the innocent."
    'And you have never killed to survive?"
    'Yes, but…"
    'Killed for power?"
    'Not the innocent."
    'And who declared them guilty?"
    'They did, by their own actions."

    'And who appointed you as judge and jury and executioner? Have I not as much right to appoint myself to the position as you did?"
    'I have never destroyed the innocent!" Henry held tightly to that while the sun grew brighter behind his eyes.
    'There are no innocents. Or do you deny your church's position on original sin?"
    'You argue like a Jesuit!"
    'Thank you. I am as immortal as you are, Richmond. I will never grow old, I will never die, I will never leave you. Not even another Nightwalker can promise you that."
    Vampires were solitary hunters. Humans were pack animals. In order to survive in a human world, the vampire could not surrender all humanity-those who did were quickly destroyed by the terror they evoked-and this double nature found itself constantly at war with itself. But to find a companion, one who would neither cause instinctive bloody battles over territory nor die just when he had become an intrinsic part of life…
    'No!" Henry leapt to his feet and flung himself forward into the darkness, trying to outdistance the sun. Halfway across the park, he managed to stop himself and, fingers dug deep into the living bark of a tree, old and gnarled and half his age, he fought back.
    'I have lived, knowing I was immortal, for thousands of years." Tawfik continued to speak, sure that the Night-walker could hear him. He watched the reaction of the other's ka and chose his words accordingly. "I am perhaps the only man you will ever meet who can understand you, who can know what you go through. Who can accept you entirely for what you are. I, too, have seen the ones I love grow old and die."
    Listening, in spite of himself, Henry saw the years take Vicki from him as the years had taken the others.
    'I am asking you to stand by my side, Nightwalker. A man should not go alone through the centuries; neither of us need ever stand alone again. You need not go blindly forward. I have lived the years you will live, I can be there to guide you." Tawfik couldn't quite hide the gasp as the Nightwalker was suddenly, silently, beside him again.
    'You never told me what you plan to do now."